Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Jordan said he is unwilling to vote for a temporary spending bill to
reopen the federal government unless President Barack Obama agrees to revisions in the 2010
health-care law.

“We have to get something on Obamacare,” Jordan, R-Urbana, told TV host Al Hunt on the show
Political Capital, which will air this weekend on Bloomberg TV.

Jordan is considered a key conservative House member and a leader among the roughly 20 to 60
members with close ties to the tea party. Those members have become crucial in the fight over a
spending bill that expired on Sept. 30. They’d ideally like to see the health-care law defunded,
but some would settle for a one-year delay of the individual mandate.

As the government shutdown drags into its second week, Jordan said it could end if the Obama
administration would agree to delay that key provision.

Specifically, he argued it’s unfair that the Obama administration allowed a one-year delay of a
mandate that requires companies with more than 50 full-time workers to offer health insurance to
their employees while still requiring individuals to purchase health insurance beginning in
2014.

Jordan also linked the health-care law to the decision to raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit.
The current debt limit is expected to expire sometime around Oct. 17. Jordan said that changing the
health-care law “has to be a part” of the idea to harness the nation’s debt.

Jordan said he was unwilling to allow the nation to default on its debts, but he added that it
would be “extremely irresponsible” for Obama to say he would not negotiate over the debt
ceiling.